


Fallen From The Heavens

by arizonasnow



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Abuse, Happy Ending, Multi, You better wait for the Mileven...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-14 03:40:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11774739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arizonasnow/pseuds/arizonasnow
Summary: What if Will wasn't taken to the Upside Down?What if Eleven never escaped the lab?What if Mike never met the strange girl with the shaved hair?What if Dustin never saw the eyes of the men who she killed?What if Lucas never tried to help save the girl he betrayed?





	Fallen From The Heavens

**January 1985**

Her heart was pounding in her ears, each pulse was a drum beat slamming against her chest. She didn't know where but she had to run, to find shelter, because with shelter there came hope. These instincts were hitting her like bricks, crashing into her at lightning speed. She jolted with every noise around her before her legs began to take her somewhere, carrying her to a better place. She could feel icy pain against her feet mostly, but also all over her body as the new sensation of a winter's breeze brushed against her. The darkness was surrounding her as she ran, hearing alarms blaring behind her. She didn't know where she was, or what this place even meant. There were strange brown needles covered by frozen white powder on the ground and tall, green, tufted towers pointing up in the sky with the same white powder causing the leaves to droop. She'd only heard about commies and mind control for the past fourteen years, none of this made any sense to the confused girl. She was losing breath but she couldn't stop now.

The sirens were getting more and more quiet as she ran for her life, not daring to turn back. She didn't want to see if someone was chasing her or if she could still see the place she'd been for her entire life. She couldn't stand the sight of her prison on the outside or inside, and now she was finally free. While she was slowly draining herself of breath, she felt like she was flying, far away from the place that kept her captive. With each stride, the snow seeped into her skin and chilled her very being, but the cold hadn't gotten to her yet. She could no longer feel the her feet or fingertips, and if she didn't find shelter soon, it would spread to her legs and the numbness would disable her. She knew she wouldn't last too long in the weather, but that wasn't going to stop her. Anything except that _horrible_ place. She found a light smile spreading across her lips as she disappeared into the snowy woods, finally free. 

-

Something didn't feel right. It had been a normal Friday night and nothing had gone wrong, but he couldn't ignore the feeling bubbling up in his gut as his eyes stayed open and he glanced at the alarm clock sitting next to him. It was around four o'clock in the morning.  _'Great.'_ He thought to himself, rolling his eyes lightly. He still couldn't put his finger on the feeling that was spreading through his body, causing him to shiver lightly. Something was most definitely wrong.

The raven-haired boy finally sat up in his bed, his dark eyes scanning the room. Nothing was out of place or moved, kept in the same messy order that it had been for years. His mother always said his room looked like a pigsty unless she made him clean it. It was definitely true. He gulped lightly as a new wave of nerves hit him square in the gut and he couldn't take it anymore. He ignored any superstitions he'd heard over the years as he pulled on a shirt and a pair of pants, reaching for the winter coat he'd lazily thrown onto the ground the previous afternoon when he'd returned from school. The boy picked up the flashlight that had been sitting on his desktop counter for the past three weeks and sucked in a breath as he opened the window to his bedroom door. A gust of winter wind hit him but he didn't stop climbing out until he felt his feet against the slippery, snow-covered roof. He gulped and closed the window behind him, sneaking across the roof before jumping down into the bushes below. He got back onto his feet and turned around, facing the darkened woods. He _was_ going to find out the feeling that riddled him, no matter what it may cost.

-

A grumble rose from the man's throat as he tried to twist his key into the car for the third time, the ignition sputtering in and out. The man took his hat off and sat it down in the passenger's seat beside him before he saw something out of the corner of his eye. The man sat up and felt his hand instinctively reach for the gun that was tucked into his belt and slowly opened the car door, stepping out into the night. He held the gun up and scanned the area with his eyes, his other hand reaching for the flashlight in his other pocket. 

A twig snapped and he jerked the flashlight up to see a tiny girl with the saddest eyes he'd ever seen. She looked absolutely terrible, wearing a hospital gown that was stained with blood and no shoes. It was January and she couldn't have possibly been traveling like that for long, or she would've frozen to death hours before. "Who are you?!" The Chief snapped, still aiming his gun at the girl. Actually, he couldn't quite tell WHAT they were, but judging on their facial features, lightly curved body, and long legs, they was most-likely female. "Hey, I asked you a question!" He repeated. The girl looked scared and was backing up into the snow, but the sound of sirens made her twitch and look back up at him through brown eyes filled to the brim with fear.

"Help... me... please..." She begged quietly, holding her hands up in a state of surrender. The Chief didn't know what to think. In his ten years of working at the Hawkins Police Department, he'd never had something like this happen.

He reluctantly let the girl into his car before driving off in the opposite direction of the sirens, towards his home on the banks of the lake in Hawkins. It was a small town, with a quarry and a lake, and he'd built a home there a few years previously after ending his marriage with his wife of five years. They'd had a good run, but he wasn't the same since he lost his daughter many years before, and he couldn't deal with any memories of her. But the Chief wasn't thinking about this now. His mind was trapped on the shivering girl in the seat beside him.

He reached over and aimed the vent at her, turning on the heat in his car. It wasn't luxurious at all, in fact, it was quite the opposite, but it had a radio, could drive, and had ac/heat, so he dealt with it. He could tell she was nervous, but he didn’t know why. He didn’t connect the sirens with the hospital-gown clothed child sitting in his car, who’d been running in the snowy woods at four o’clock in the morning in the middle of January. The Chief turned on the radio, the voice of the lead singer of Foreigner coming on as “Waiting For a Girl Like You” began to play. She seemed to relax and he felt a rush of satisfaction as he drove forward.

They arrived to his house quickly, and it was a good thing, too. The sirens were completely out of earshot now, and the girl seemed much more relaxed. He lead her into his home before closing and locking the door behind him, not bothering to deal with anyone knocking on his door. He looked at the clock, realizing that his shift started in three hours. He turned to the girl, who hadn't moved an inch since she'd come inside. "So, do you have a name or something?" He asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Eleven." She replied stoically, not feeling the slightest bit out-of-place. Her whole life had been "Alright, Eleven" or "Experiment Eleven, come here", so she was positive that was her name. She didn't know what else to call herself. For all she knew, she didn't have a mother, friends, or siblings. She had a Papa, though, and he would be looking for her. She didn't know that she was supposed to love her parents either. She certainly didn't love her Papa. He'd treated her in ways so badly she would've never thought they were possible, and there was no forgiveness for the things he'd done.

The Chief raised an eyebrow. "Like the number? I'm going to need a real name, kid." He said, sighing as he scratched his head.

Eleven nodded again. "Eleven. Real name." She said, crossing her arms lightly due to the cold. His house had the heater on, which was somewhat good, but she was soaking wet from the snow that had seeped through her hospital gown when she initially escaped whatever place she'd come from. She was shaking a little bit, but it wasn't as bad as it had been earlier. The Chief decided to bring her into the living room where he had a fireplace. She began to warm up after ten minutes. That was when he gave her some food- she was as skinny as a stick and looked severely emaciated. He didn't have much food since it was just him, so he heated up two eggo waffles and brought her a cup of hot chocolate. She ate them ravenously and began to sip on her hot chocolate when he resumed his inquiries. 

"So... where'd you come from?" He asked, looking over the girl. Clearly it wasn't from a normal home, if they'd named her _Eleven_. That was the first red flag.

"Bad place..." She said quietly, her gaze never meeting his. 

"What bad place?" He inquired, scooting closer to her in the chair he'd been sitting in.

She looked up, finally into his eyes. "Lab." She said. "DOE." Second red flag.

He realized she was practically mute because of how few words she knew, but he did understand what 'DOE' was. It was the local Department of Energy. But... that didn't make any sense. They were just regular old Hawkins Power and Light. 

"What... lab?" The Chief asked, his gaze hardening. Something was definitely not right. 

"Bad men. Tests. Papa." Eleven muttered, taking another sip from the mug. She licked her lips. "Made me... track... commies." She formed the sentence slowly but surely.

The Chief narrowed his eyes.  _'Why the hell is a teenage girl tracking commies?'_ He thought to himself.

"Well, um, I'm Chief Hopper, but you can call me Hop or Jim, Eleven." He said, reaching out to shake her hand. She looked at him and hesitantly shook it. She'd seen men in the lab do that thousands of times when they would meet for business talks or to make her display her powers. She hated having to do that.

Meanwhile, Hopper figured if he got close enough to her he'd figure out what the hell was going on with the situation, and something about it seemed incredibly off. Very wrong.

He asked her a few more questions that she ended up not understanding before he realized how tired she must have been. It didn't take her long after that to fall asleep on his couch, bundled up in a few extra blankets that he'd managed to salvage as he searched his house.

When he got to his room, he closed the door and immediately picked up the phone on his bedside table, calling the first person he knew who was good with children.

"Joyce." He whispered into the phone. "Look, whenever you get this, I need you to come by my place. It's an emergency." He said lowly. Joyce Byers was one of his best friends and happened to be a local therapist after studying the emotional unbalance of her children after her husband left. She was a great therapist and he figured she'd be the best option to get answers out of the young girl. As far as he could tell, she was about thirteen or fourteen and had some kind of dark past involving Russian commies and a laboratory.

-

The young boy was walking, and was now quite far into the woods when he stepped down and heard a twig snap beneath his feet and a voice speaking. He recognized the Chief of Police, but didn't understand the next one, which was full of surrender and begging. He felt bad for accidentally exposing whoever it was, but he hid behind a tree and peeked around to see her. He'd never seen such an interesting sight- a young girl with a shaved head, brown eyes full of terror, and a bloody hospital gown. He was as confused as he possibly could've been, but he decided after that he should go home.

He reluctantly left after hearing the Chief's car drive off, but the sirens were still going off in the distance when he began to walk home on the side of he road. Something was wrong in Hawkins, and he couldn't figure out what it was. He just knew that if he didn't get home before sunrise that his mother might wake up and notice he was gone, and assume he'd snuck out to go hang out with his friends or maybe even mess around with a girl, but him having a girlfriend was just about as likely as a total eclipse of the sun happening in the midst of a double rainbow while dinosaurs simultaneously came back into existence. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

Something was off, though. He hadn't gotten a full view of the strange girl with the shaved head, but he knew better than to get caught with the Chief of Police at three o clock in the morning. He'd surely get grounded for that, and he was getting ready to go to the State Science Fair with his best friends. If he got grounded, it would ruin the idea of him even being allowed out of the house. So, he trudged off, brushing off the idea that the sirens in the distance had something to do with that... girl. Something about her was haunting, but another part enchanting. He didn't know what to think.

He couldn't quite get a grip of the gutter as he tried to climb up into the house again, turning to see the lazy sky beginning to change into a lighter shade of blue. His mother wouldn't be awake yet. He did hear his sister's window open, the one that was closest to the bushes, and he nervously hid against the wall of the house. Of course, he would've never expected what was really about to happen. 

His best friend's older brother jumped down from the roof and landed centimeters in front of him. If it was a knife, it would've cut the tips of his flyaway hairs off. Jonathan Byers was equally as shocked and neither boys said anything to each other in fear of waking up the lady of the house, who would get all three of them in trouble. Instead, he awkwardly helped the boy up the roof in return for keeping his mouth shut, a silent deal that was set in stone.

The boy passed his sister's window as she was beginning to shut it before she whipped it back open.

"Mike!" She whispered furiously. "What the hell are you doing up here?!" She snapped.

"Sorry, Nancy, I was just out for a walk." He responded, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. 

"If mom caught you, you'd be in so much trouble." She responded, scolding him lightly.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, right, mom would be pissed with ME for going on a walk, not you, Nancy 'I-Just-Slept-with-Jonathan-Byers' Wheeler." He fired back.

She bit her lip, blushing, and let out a sigh. "Fair point. Not a word to mom about Jon and I won't tell her about your little sleepwalking excursion." She said, sticking out her hand. He shook it and climbed in through her window before sneaking back into his own room.

It just didn't feel  _right_. He was laying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, while he tried to forget the things he'd seen. He couldn't forget, though.

-

Joyce Byers stood up and walked into her living room, glad that it was finally Saturday, her day off of work. She worked weekdays but got weekends off to spend with her kids since they weren't in school, but one of them seemed nowhere to be found. Jonathan, her oldest, was very independent and practically took care of himself, but she still made sure he was alright. She figured he had left early for work that morning and had taken his car with him since she couldn't see it in the driveway. 

Joyce opened the door to her youngest son's room, seeing him still asleep in his bed. Will was also independent, but he didn't have a driver's license and hadn't even started High School yet. He was in the eighth grade, while Jonathan was a senior in High School. Will was a trooper, and she was probably the most overprotective of him. While Jonathan had the option to be a bit of a lone ranger, Will did not. At age eleven he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had fought valiantly for a year and a half. He'd gotten it removed and has been cancer free ever since, and she even remembered how happy he was when his hair grew back. She smiled softly before closing the door back and hearing the phone ring. She figured it wasn't important when it stopped ringing, but she still felt like she should see it. Joyce always got a little bit nervous about missing calls. It wasn't very dark in the house anymore, and the sun had began to peek over the Hawkins horizon, coloring the clouds beautiful shades of pink and purple while the sky was a pale blue against the white snow that covered mostly everything in sight.

She listened to the voicemail before beginning to act fast, scribbling a note that she left on the counter for Will in case she wasn't back when he woke up and grabbing her keys, jacket, and a quick cigarette that she'd just have to smoke in the car. She quickly started it and began to drive, taking longer drags than normal out of habit. When she finally arrived at Hopper's house, the cigarette was just a stump and she eventually threw it out of her window before opening the door and rushing up, knocking loudly on his house entrance.

Hopper answered a few minutes later, promptly hushing her. She scowled at the rudeness before peeking around the Chief's body to see a shaved-headed girl sleeping on the couch. Her eyes widened in surprise before Hopper walked outside and left the door slightly cracked behind him.

"Joyce, I don't have answers." He began. 

"Well, Hop, that's a great start." She snapped sarcastically. 

"No, really. I found her early this morning when I was coming back from the bar and I don't think she can talk!" He said in a strained whisper.

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?" She asked, frowning lightly.

"Well, I asked her some questions. She said her name was Eleven, like the number, Eleven, and apparently she came from some lab where they used her to track the commies." He said with a shrug. "I know it sounds crazy, but I always knew something was up with Hawkins Power and Light. She even said DOE." He answered.

Joyce looked at him like he was crazy. "Well, um, I'll try to talk to her, Hop, but this does sound a little bit... strange." 

"Well, Joyce,  _stranger things_ have never happened here before. If I was trying to do some kind of crazy government experiment, I'd choose Hawkins too. It's just a tiny Indiana town. I mean, come on, Joyce, this town has been waiting for some kind of scandal since the day it was founded." Hopper said, taking off his hat. 

Joyce nodded. "Okay, Hop." She said hesitantly as he opened the door to let her talk to the blanket covered girl.

The older woman was hesitant to wake her up- she was fast asleep and looked like she hadn't slept in days, with bags under her eyes . She was tiny, too, and Joyce could see her collarbone and cheekbones popping out from how malnourished she truly was. This girl was about as pale as a ghost, and Joyce could see her bony arm move out of the blankets for a moment and caught the familiar sight of a hospital gown, recognizing the fabric from when her son, Will, had been receiving treatment for his tumor. "Hop, she really did come from Hawkins Power and Light. These are the same hospital gowns that they gave Will when he had radiology done there. They don't have CAT scan machines at Hawkins General." She said in a low whisper. "Do you think she was a patient? Maybe the whole experiment thing would make more sense then?" She asked.

Hopper shook his head. "Joyce, Will didn't STAY there, and he didn't have radiology at 3 AM. He most definitely didn't track commies. This..." he paused. "this isn't something we've seen before, I'm telling you." He responded, equally as quietly. The girl was probably a light sleeper, but at this state, she could've slept through an earthquake because it looked like she hadn't slept in at least four days. "You have to get some kind of answers from her." He pressed.

Joyce nodded. "Alright, Hop, but promise me you aren't just doing this because of her?" She asked, looking up at the shaggy haired man, who gulped.

"I, uh, I promise." He said, feeling a cold sweat on the back of his neck. In 1983, his daughter Sara had disappeared without a trace and Hopper went crazy looking for her. He tracked her back to the area around DOE where he found a strange portal-like hole in a tree and decided to go inside with only his gun to protect him. He stated to have seen a terrifying monster with a venus-flytrap face but no Sara, and the town declared him crazy before he redeemed himself by saying it was actually a plot for a book his cousin was writing. It was the only way for him to keep his job and his sanity, because although he town didn't believe him, he actually _had_ seen it. No one believed him, though, not even Joyce. 

She smiled though. "I'm glad you're over it. It's a good time to move on. Have you asked her about her parents?" She questioned, looking over at him. She always carried a small notepad and pen in her back pocket out of habit, since she wrote down what others were saying five days a week for a living. 

Hopper nodded. "Yeah, all I got was 'Papa'. Might've been some psycho or something, I don't know. She said 'bad men', too, but I don't know what that means." He said with a shrug. Joyce nodded, jotting notes down on her pad of paper. Hopper wanted to figure this girl out, and he wanted to do it soon. A dark cloud was beginning to form over Hawkins, stripping its innocence with each acidic raindrop that touched the ground.

Joyce sighed. "I'll try and talk to her, but we should clean her up first. She's covered in dirt and... Hop, is that blood?!" She asked as she looked inside through the cracked door. There was blood under the girl's nose and around her ears a bit, as well as on her neck and arm. Something had clearly happened. No child who simply ran away from home would show up with no hair, covered in blood, and wearing a hospital gown. It was just too strange.

Hopper nodded. "I think so. I don't know what happened and it doesn't look like she has any wounds from what I saw. She isn't reacting to a cut when she moves though. When someone has a cut on their stomach or back, they usually writhe with each movement." He stated and Joyce nodded.

"Okay, I'll go wake her up. Hop, get a bath ready, and make sure the water's warm. She's still a little blue." Joyce said, and the police Chief quickly moved towards the bathroom after opening the door enough to walk inside. Joyce followed him but the two parted ways as she kneeled down beside the girl, tapping her shoulder lightly. "Eleven?" She asked with the most gentle voice she could. The girl slept on. She shook her lightly and saw her eyelids flutter open and knew she had woken her up now. The girl looked at her, confused, and began to sit up. Joyce helped her the whole way, hearing the water hitting and echoing against the bathtub from the room that was a few meters away. Hopper's home was tiny, and it was very easy to get through. It was usually messy, too, and he didn't really have any food. Joyce was just trying to figure out who the hell to call so she could get this girl back to wherever she belonged. 

Joyce looked her over as the blanket fell from the shoulders. Her right arm was smattered in scars, some looking like claw and bite marks. Joyce would definitely have to question these.

-

_ It had only been a few months since the scars appeared. Eleven had been doing her work as usual when she had to go into the Upside Down for another mission to track down the monster. She didn't want to go. She was fighting against Papa and the other men, and she finally snapped, lifting up her arm and twisting the neck of not only one, but two guards. Someone's voice rang out in the background, distorted through the speakers as they spoke into a microphone in the viewing area.  _

_ 'Send out the dogs.' It commanded, and Eleven twitched before looking around, trying to figure out what was happening. _

_ The door burst open and several german shepherds snarled and growled, jumping onto her. She shielded her face with her right arm just as one of them bit into it. After about a minute of her screaming in pure pain and terror, the handlers grabbed the dogs back, leaving her there, covered in bloody bites and scratches. _

_ Papa came over to her, kneeling down on the ground. 'See what happens when you don't obey, Eleven?' He sneered. Tears were streaming from her cheeks as she looked up at him, her eyes full of surrender. _

_ - _

Joyce could see the same markings on one of her legs as well, and knew those weren't made by a human. She looked over at the girl. "We're going to clean you off, okay?" She asked, and Eleven hesitantly nodded. She knew what that meant. Eleven was regularly sprayed down and soaped up by the nurses at the lab and was used to the harsh water pressure hitting her bare skin. She still hated the sting of it.

Joyce lead her to the bathroom and Hopper walked out, letting the girls have privacy. Joyce helped Eleven out of her gown and was surprised when she didn't even bother to cover herself. It was very strange. Joyce noticed that her ribs were poking out and so were her hip bones. She had definitely hit puberty, but was skeletal in size. Her entire body was bony and cadaverous, she looked like a bag of bones.

The girl took one look at the bath and rapidly shook her head. "No, no bath!" She pleaded, looking up at Joyce and gulping. The woman tilted her head. "Sweetie, we have to clean you up." She replied calmly, raising a washcloth that was now covered in soap.

Eleven shook her head again. "Can't... can't go back. Commies... too far..." She said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I can't find them." She finally stated.

"We don't need you to find anyone, sweetheart. We just need to clean you up." Joyce responded, stroking the girl's hair, which seemed to calm her down a little bit. She looked up at her. "Okay..." She replied after a bit of hesitation, shaking a bit out of fear.

She got into the bathtub, sitting up, and Joyce began to clean the dirt and dried blood off of her skin. At first the water had stung- it wasn't extremely warm, but her body had been so cold even after the blankets that it felt like it was boiling. Joyce finished cleaning her up after around twenty minutes and gave her a towel before walking outside, leaving her alone in the bathtub. When the woman was gone, Eleven let her head drop a little bit and she shed a few tears, shaking lightly. She didn't want to be in the bathtub. She didn't want to track commies, not now, not ever. She didn't want to see the face of the monster.

Joyce returned with an old t-shirt that was definitely Hopper's and handed it to Eleven, who'd just managed to dry herself off. She changed into the shirt and looked up at Joyce through wide eyes as the sun shone in through the window, beginning to rise over the horizon. She brought the girl into the living room, taking out her pad of paper again as Hopper helped her onto the sofa and gave her another blanket to wrap around her bare arms. The t-shirt was huge and covered the same area as her hospital gown, but the sleeves didn't reach all the way to her elbows, so she was still bare in that area. 

Eleven wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and looked up at Joyce again, blinking as she watched the woman scribble down notes onto her notepad before turning to her. "So, Eleven, do you have parents that I can call?" She asked, nodding lightly. 

Eleven tilted her head. "Pa-rents?" She repeated, clearly confused by this new word.

Joyce nodded again. "Yes, parents? You mother and father?" she inquired.

Eleven shook her head. "No... parents." She stated, figuring out her answers.

Joyce looked over at Hopper, some new kind of nervous mystery shining in his eyes that she picked up on. "So, where do you live? Where's your home?" 

"Lab. Bad place." She said in an almost hushed whisper, coming out in a quiet raspy tone.

Joyce nodded, jotting this down onto her paper, clicking her pen a few times as she paused to think. "Did they hurt you?" She asked.

Eleven nodded quietly. "Yes. Bad... touch." She answered. Joyce could tell the girl had speech issues, probably from years of being shut up.

"Do you know why they hurt you?" Joyce asked. 

Eleven nodded. "Didn't do what they wanted. Didn't go Upside Down."

"What is 'Upside Down'?"

"Cold, flaky, dark. Blue." Eleven answered, pausing to think.

Hopper suddenly spoke up. "Is it like home?" He asked, kneeling down to be at her eye level.

Eleven nodded. "Like home... but not home." She responded in a calm tone. His gaze snapped to Joyce.

"How did you get... Upside Down?" Joyce asked, writing furiously.

The small girl looked around before answering. "Through gate. In lab. Gate in lab and woods." She spoke.

Hopper's heart was pounding. "Where in the woods?" He asked quickly and quietly, staring at Eleven.

"In tree. Takes you to Upside Down." She stated calmly.

Joyce's breath hitched before she looked at Hopper and returned her gaze to Eleven. "Why did they send you Upside Down?"

"To find monster." Eleven said, her voice quivering lightly. "To kill it."

Hopper raised his voice. "What did it look like, Eleven?!" He asked, scaring her. He didn't realize he'd grabbed her skinny thigh in the process until he saw her reaction. She flinched- no, jumped- and moved back quickly, her eyes wide and full of terror like a spooked horse.

He shook his head and calmed down. "I'm... sorry. What did it look like?" He said as he gulped.

Eleven looked at both adults before looking down at the ground. "No... face. Just mouth. Tall. Ate... meat." She answered, her voice shaking slightly..

Hopper looked at Joyce. "And you didn't believe me." He said under his voice. Joyce's mouth was wide open. 

"Hop, she's a child, we can't justify what she's saying. You lost your daughter, but this girl's clearly been through trauma." Joyce said. She wasn't assuring Hopper though, she was trying to convince herself that something about this situation was even remotely normal. It wasn't working.

After a few more hours of talking to Eleven, they realized that DOE would be looking for her, and they also realized that they'd have to keep her a secret. Joyce understood that she couldn't send her back to wherever she came from, she was clearly terrified and traumatized from that place. Instead, she'd just have to keep her with Hopper and continue to visit her every day to make sure she was doing alright until the situation was cleared up.

-

Joyce and Hopper had gone into another room to talk when Eleven realized she was alone. She didn't notice them leave the door cracked open so she looked at the table to see her hot chocolate still half-full, sitting all the way on the other side of the wooden surface. She began to reach for it but realized she wouldn't be able to, so she dug into her mind and simply levitated it over to herself. She reached out and picked it up with her hands once it was in reach and began to sip gently. After placing it back on the table in front of her, she wiped a bit of blood off of her face from under her nose and continued to look around the room like nothing had happened.

Joyce's mouth was hanging open and Hopper looked paler than usual. "Joyce did you...?" Hopper said quietly.

Joyce nodded. "Yeah... yeah I did." she replied just as quietly, gulping.

-

The next few days were easy. Joyce and Hopper took care of Eleven, the older woman would end her shift early and come home from work late. She was brining the girl some old clothing and making sure she was doing alright, as well as helping her with her speech problems in hope of getting some real answers out of her, but she wouldn't see any progress for about a week. Meanwhile, her son reported a strange woman knocking on the door who was in search of a military fugitive. Joyce felt a cold sweat as Will showed her the picture that the woman had given her.

"I wonder what she's done..." Will said quietly, looking at the black and white photo of the girl with the buzz cut. "Anyways, about the lady who came by, her name's Connie Frazier and she wrote her phone number on the back of the picture." He said, flipping it over.

Joyce looked her son dead in the eye. "Burn the picture and don't tell anyone about this, Will." She spoke, her tone darkened. 

Will looked up at her, confused as hell. "Mom, what are you talking about?"

"You don't want to mess with the government, Will. Now, you heard me. Get rid of it." She said quietly, returning to her bedroom. She didn't sleep that night.

-

It was hard for her to explain to Will that she was helping the Chief of Police harbor a fugitive, but eventually she managed to slip him the news. It had been exactly one week since she'd found Eleven and the girl could now form sentences almost normally. She was beginning to get more and more in-depth answers about where she'd come from and what had been done to her. She ended up spilling this information to her thirteen year old son who just sat there with his mouth hanging open before asking to see her.

He swore not to say a word to anyone, not even Jonathan or his friends, and Joyce made sure he understood the dangers of having her there with them. Eleven had opened up much more about her traumas as she learned to trust Joyce and Hopper, and something about being the only safe haven that this young girl had made Joyce want to protect her more than anything. So, she hopped in the car with Will in the passenger's seat and drove off towards the trailer by the edge of the lake.

It hadn't taken long for Joyce to realize, through the process, that there was no turning back. She couldn't turn Eleven in no matter what. 

-

Eleven had been asleep the first time she saw someone her age. She was curled up on the couch with a huge hoodie on, it being the only thing covering her from the cold. She didn't have many other options, but she was grateful for the things she got. She'd never been given anything besides a fresh hospital gown when she would get washed off and sterilized, so even a ratty old hoody meant the world for her. So, she was sleeping there, minding her own business, when her first friend showed up in all his glory.

Will was a small boy. He stood at around five foot one while most of his friends towered over him, the tallest one being a lanky boy named Mike who was five foot eight at their age. Mike was a year older though, and had been held back in kindergarten due to a summer birthday. His other friends were in between on the height spectrum, but Will was still the shortest. He had straight brown hair that was in somewhat of a bowl cut and pale green eyes. 

He looked normal, but she was quite a sight.

Even shorter than him, standing probably at four foot eleven, with shaved light brown hair and very pale, nearly-alabaster toned skin. Her eyelids fluttered as she slept, Will noticed when he walked through the door, and she looked so peaceful. Joyce left him to go talk to Hopper, and he sat down in the chair next to her, watching her sleep. He felt like he was being creepy, but there was something so serene about the way her chest would lightly rise and fall.

Finally her eyes opened slowly and she turned to look at him. He found a blush creep onto his cheeks as he realized she'd caught him staring at her as he slept, and he reached out to shake her hand. "oh, um, sorry. Hi, I'm Will, you uh, you know my mom." He said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck as she sat up and shook his head.

"I'm Eleven." She replied softly, her sad brown eyes contradicting the light smile on her face. It was a bit awkward for the first few minutes before Will decided to strike up a conversation about the first thing he could think of, which happened to be school.

"So, do you go to school around here?" He asked, regretting it the second after he said it.  _'Am I thick or something? Of course she doesn't go to school, Byers! Great start.'_ He thought. In all honesty, his opinion of her was neutral. He didn't know if he could trust her or if he liked or disliked her. She seemed like a sweet girl, but he'd only just met her, literally.

She shook her head, looking down towards the ground. He felt bad now. "I've never been to school. Never left the lab." She said, scratching at her arm through the fabric of her hoodie which was the barrier between her nails and her skin. She seemed a bit sad, and Will felt the unspeakable urge to comfort her.

"It's okay, sorry for asking. Anyways, why um... why are people looking for you?" He asked, letting the awkward question slip from his mouth.

Eleven gulped. "I... I ran away. I couldn't find the monster anymore. It was getting stronger and I... if I kept finding it, it would open a gate and come..." She answered, avoiding his gaze. Her voice was wavering and he could tell that tears were building up in the corners of her eyes. "They just wanted my energy. I knew what was going to happen to me when I turned fifteen." She whispered.

Will was confused. "What are you talking about?" He asked, feeling suspicious. He knew she was a fugitive but he didn't really know anything else about this girl.

"I can do things." She whispered. He still looked confused. Eleven reached out her hand and Will turned his head to all of a sudden see Hopper's television remote floating over to them. Will's eyes bugged out as she levitated it and neatly put it down on the table. She wasn't looking at him at all, just down towards the ground as she wiped something onto her sleeve from below her nose. Will's mouth was hanging open and he didn't really know what he'd just seen, but it sure was something.

"Did you just... did that remote... levitate?!" He asked, whispering furiously. Eleven nodded lightly.

"Joyce said it's called tel-ih-kuh-nee-sus and apparently not everyone has it. That's why they used me." She said quietly. Will noticed she was starting to fidget nervously. 

 Will nodded softly before realizing he should probably change the subject. "Hey, so, you probably get bored around here. I can teach you how to play cards if you want." He suggested, pulling the deck out of his pocket. He'd brought it because he thought he was going over to another one of his friend's houses to play cards that afternoon, but said friend announced that his family was going on a weekend trip to visit family, so he forgot to put the cards back. Eleven scooted forward and nodded eagerly while Will smiled and began to shuffle the cards.

-

Eleven was the fastest learner Joyce had ever seen. She ripped through the elementary school books she brought and did the math extremely easily. Now the only problem was middle school. The girl didn't seem to know anything past basic math, and Joyce knew her teaching wasn't going to get her anywhere. So, she enlisted Will in the process of helping her. The only problem was, the science fair was coming up and he didn't know how to fit time in to tutor Eleven, lie to his friends about where he was going, test their experiment, and hang out with them all at the same time. 

He'd slowly but surely become friends with Eleven after the two realized they were very similar in personality. Both were a bit on the shy side but easily warmed up to each other. Joyce could tell Will was also a bit protective over Eleven, and she had to ask him several times to tell her any information that Eleven, nicknamed 'El', gave him regarding her past. Turns out, she ended up telling most of it to Will instead of her or Hopper, but Joyce got the information in the end, so it was worth it. 

The woman had a plan though. That was to build a lawsuit against the laboratory and expose it. She and Hopper had been plotting it for probably a week when they realized it would take more information than what they had, so they were beginning to look farther and farther into Eleven's past. That was when Hopper found articles at the library regarding a woman named Terry Ives who claimed to have had her daughter "stolen" from her. He began to dig into the story and realized it connected directly with Eleven's past and everything seemed to fit into place. Every t was crossed and every i dotted. 

Still though, Eleven seemed to use education as a distraction from her regular nightmares and flashbacks. Sometimes she'd get scared if someone touched her leg or arm and she would frequently cry and writhe in her sleep. Only Will knew why she would be so hesitant until he shared the information with Joyce, who felt her heart break a tiny bit when she found out about the girl's past.

 

-

Eleven ended up making quite a lot of progress in the next two weeks, but for Will, it was getting harder and harder to lie to his friends about where he was going every afternoon. He'd become very close with the girl- they would play cards, draw, talk, watch movies, and all sorts of other things together, and became like siblings almost. But there was an issue. The government had begun to go door by door to other neighborhoods to ask if anyone had seen her. They had a picture of her that Will received and he was scared that someone else might have seen her in the woods. He had to tell them the truth- it was going to come out sooner or later. 

Will was running out of time, and he could tell Joyce and Hopper weren't ready to allow the girl out of the house. It wasn't exactly a problem, as she was too afraid to leave. She still wasn't really healthy enough for it, either. She was pale and willowy and sometimes had trouble walking to the bathroom. She would frequently have dizzy spells as well and Joyce was concerned about her nose bleeds because they could have been a sign of brain aneurism or some odd term he didn't know about.

After another month Jonathan found out. He was quite shocked that nobody had caught on to Hopper, Joyce, and even Will for harboring a military fugitive in his house for such a long time without being questioned in the slightest due to being the town's "crazy people" and ended up getting along quite well with Eleven. After another few weeks, Jonathan, Will, and Eleven were just like siblings. Will told Eleven about his friends, and Jonathan talked nonstop about this girl he was constantly dreamy-eyed over. Will would always scoff at this, and Eleven thought the way he would turn up his nose was hilarious. She could now carry conversations with them as well and was making a lot of progress with her education in incredible speeds. 

But the time came when Will couldn't teach her anything else. It had gotten to the point where she'd read through his textbooks and end up teaching  _him_  the material. She needed badly to go to a school but Joyce and Hopper were concerned about the lab finding her there.

Time was ticking though. Will was about to start high school when they made the decision. They'd register her as a citizen who moved from Sweden and was bilingual, with Swedish as her first language to explain her sometimes ragged sentences. She would go by 'El', a nickname Will had started to use for her, and have nothing to do with any kind of "powers", as she was taught by Joyce to suppress them. She learned that she had to keep them to a minimum and only use them in the case of an extreme emergency, but they would have to be a last resort. 

As for her sudden appearance in the school- she'd be known as Hopper's daughter, adopted from foster care after her parents died tragically and she was sent to the Americas for a fresh start. Everything was set into place. Now, she just had to survive the first day.

-

The first day arrived and El found herself holding her binder tightly to her chest while her head spun from anxiety. Will rode his bike to school Hopper dropped her off at a meeting point where she and Will ended up walking the rest of the way, but it wasn't a long walk at all, only a block or two. She had never been in a place like this, but she rehearsed her fake story in her head thousands of times before she knew she'd get it right.

The high school wasn't anything fancy, but to El, it was incredible. Hallways full of rooms and lockers, kids standing around talking to each other and some with their noses stuck in books, others in each other's faces. It was a funny sight.

Will's eyes lit up as he saw a group of people and he tugged on El's sleeve. "Hey, these are my friends, we should go talk to them. They're really nice, I promise." He said. El tilted her head at this new word, 'promise', but didn't have time to question it when Will excitedly dragged her off towards a group of three boys huddled around a piece of paper in one of their hands. El noticed certain traits about each boy. The first was dark-skinned with a muscular build and a brow that seemed to always be furrowed in thought as well as a bandana around his forehead. The second had curly, light brown hair and bright blue eyes, as well as a kind smile that appeared when he chuckled at something. The last boy... well, El didn't quite know why he was so different, but she didn't look at the other two quite the same way. He was tall and lanky with freckles splattering against his pale cheeks and stood the tallest out of the group. She would probably be at his shoulder, due to her petite stature. He had inky black hair that fell in a mop around his face and dark brown eyes. She was immediately attracted to him, and he seemed to notice this.

-

Mike had been having the worst first day of his life. So far, he only had one class with two of his friends in it and was praying that his third friend, Will, was in it as well, but only time could tell. He had been comparing his schedule with his buddies, Dustin and Lucas, and Will was running late. He was _always_ early to school and never missed a class, except for when he had been sick years prior. It was definitely a strange occurrence for the hazel-eyed boy to be late for anything though.

He turned and saw him, preparing to give him a greeting smile when his eyes caught something else. His friend was tugging on the sleeve of a confused looking girl who was no doubt beautiful. She had soft brown hair that was bobbed and fell in messy waves. Her eyes were soft and sad, a light brown that captivated him and captured all of the light around her, soaking it in like a sponge. She was wearing a light pink dress and a blue jacket with yellow and green tube socks and a pair of beat up chucks. Some wouldn't have considered her incredibly fashion-forward, but it would take a lot of talking to convince him that she wasn't the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

He gulped and looked away, praying she hadn't noticed him staring at her. 

She had, and she was staring right back. They initially made eye contact and it was a little bit awkward, but it felt so right at the same time. Will was hurrying over to the group of boys with El trailing behind him like a lost puppy and he was grinning from ear to ear. "Hey guys!" He chirped, Dustin and Lucas both waving.

"Byers!" Dustin said. "I missed you guy so much this summer. It was really boring. My grandma had me mowing her lawn all the time and I had to explain that grass doesn't grow at magical speeds." He said, Lucas chuckling beside him.

The boys begin to get into a conversation about god-knows-what and El was standing awkwardly to the side, looking around the hallway nervously before feeling like she was being looked at. She let her gaze travel back to the boy with jet black hair who was the culprit of this feeling, and she saw a blush rise to his cheeks just like it did on hers as they met lines of sight. She felt her breath hitch in her throat as the two stared into each other's eyes for a solid twenty seconds, taking in the other's features lightly.

Both were snapped out of their vision when Will began to introduce El to the others. 

"Hey guys, this is El, by the way. She's from Sweden, so her English isn't that great, but Hopper adopted her and my mom's been working with her for a while." He explained, the boys all turning their attention back to her. Mike's attention never left her in the first place. 

"Nice to meet you, El! I'm Dustin." The curly-haired boy said, smiling. He reached out to shake her hand and she shook it with a shy smile.

"Nice to meet you too." She responded quietly. Mike picked up on her voice, which was sweet like sugar.

"And I'm Lucas." The boy with the bandana said, a light grin appearing on his cheeks. She turned to him and nodded her head lightly, her smile never leaving.

Mike didn't realize he was the one who was supposed to introduce himself next until they met gazes again and Dustin promptly elbowed him in the ribs, causing him to hold back a wince, as he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of this stunning new girl who had randomly shown up. No, that was the last thing he wanted. Mike wasn't really a 'ladies' man', but this friend of Will's didn't need to know that, did she? "Hi, El... I'm Mike." He said quietly, reaching out a shaky hand. She gave him a smile different from the others and shook it, feeling his warm hands against her own cold skin. 

That's where the trouble began.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing with this, it's just a random flow of ideas that come to me in the form of an AU. It isn't my priority series though, that's 'When It's Cold I Think Of You', and that will be updated more frequently. Thanks for reading!


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